If I understand it correctly, it's not your intent to break the characters, like a toddler with a new toy might do. You're intent on making sure that if they face something that could break them, they will be strong enough to handle that.

HTT has a long walk to get there, and they aren't planning on taking that trip in the first place.

(This makes me think of a discarded project you once mentioned where you had self-inserts on the outskirts of Bubblegum Crisis. Your SI characters weren't fighting Buma, and had no intent of doing so.)